Transcript

Tasmania's fauna is internationally renowned for its uniqueness and splendour. And many species extinct or under threat on the mainland are still abundant in the State.

But this could all be about to change. In May this year a large number of fox sightings were recorded in Tasmania's northern midlands and National Parks now believe there could be up to eight foxes in the wild.

Peter Mooney is leader of the Fox Task Force, with the State's Parks and Wildlife Service, and I asked him if there's any evidence that the fox has become established.

Peter Mooney:Well the main evidence is that we've had analysis done of a carcase that was handed in to us about a month ago and the gut samples have come up to be conclusively Tasmanian foods, in other words that's Tasmanian native rats, Tasmanian skinks, endemic species that only exist in Tasmania, and also we've had other material handed to us from other foxes which have been allegedly shot in Tasmania, and the DNA sampling of those two different animals have come out to prove that they're actually siblings. So that means we've had a litter.

Alexandra de Blas:So how far apart were those two foxes that were siblings?

Peter Mooney:About 22 kilometres apart.

Alexandra de Blas:Well Tasmania is known as the last stronghold for a number of small mammals that have been wiped out from the mainland; what species are actually at risk from foxes in Tasmania?

Peter Mooney:Well there's many species. I mean you could actually name up to 77 species. Basically any animal under the size of a fox, which is about 5.5 kilos in weight, is at risk to the fox, and that includes bird species as well because foxes can climb very easily and raid nests etc. But the most vulnerable would be the animals such as the small marsupials such as the Eastern Barred Bandicoot, a couple of our small endemic mouses, such as the New Holland Mouse, there's a Long-Tailed Rat, and they're the types of animals which from experience on the mainland in Australia, they're the animals that have disappeared completely from terrain when foxes have become introduced to a location.

Alexandra de Blas:Well foxes and cats both have a bad reputation, and feral cats have been established in Tasmania for many years now; what makes the fox such a threat?

Peter Mooney:Cats are slightly different in how they behave, and how they eat, in that cats are actually fairly selective in their food sources. The interesting thing about a fox is that it is actually very, very adaptable. If you can just have a think about where foxes live in the world, they live from very high snow, very cold climate country, right down to tropical regions and even deserts, and also their food sources are very, very flexible. In other words, they can actually not eat meat for many years at a time, just live on fruits and berries, and also they can swim, very, very well, they can climb very well. Although cats can do many of those things, cats don't usually do all those things together. They may do one activity now and again, whereas a fox can adapt and change according to environment very quickly and easily.

Alexandra de Blas:What's the primary threat from the fox? Is it eating the small animals or is it the disturbance they cause?

Peter Mooney:The real threat of a fox is the amount of stress that it produces within any animal population and in the wild. What often happens is you only need one extra element of threat and danger which will cause the animal to go to a stress level that it just can't cope and it actually will stop breeding, and this is the main threat of the fox.

Alexandra de Blas:You believe that the fox was introduced by people, but how do you know a couple of city foxes didn't just hitch a ride on a shipping container from Port Melbourne?

Peter Mooney:We do have very good evidence from 1998 when a fox did jump off a container at Burnie, the port of Burnie in northern Tasmania, which came from Webb Dock, and the premise to date has been really, that's how foxes must get into Tasmania. However colleagues in Victoria who have been doing quite a bit of study on the genetics of the populations within an urban environment, in Melbourne itself, and there's about 39 different distinct populations, and they're geno??? types are very well recorded. Now the two animal specimens that we got in Tasmania and sent off for genetic testing, came out with completely different geno??? types. They've not been recorded before in Victoria, so that automatically tells us that they must be from the country regions of Victoria. So for a fox to wander in from the country regions of Victoria right through the urban city to hop on to a vessel would be just very, very unlikely.

Alexandra de Blas:So why would someone want to introduce a fox to Tasmania?

Peter Mooney:Most of our theories come down to a pretty simple level, in that we have a lot of hunters who go hunting in Victoria for a species such as Samba? Deer and as far as their recreational time is concerned, when they're not working on deer, they'll be looking for other things to shoot, and foxes are a favourite to shoot because it helps the farmers etc. in Victoria. And they probably have a pleasant time doing it, so they would have thought that Well, this will be an easy thing to do in Tasmania; why bother coming to Victoria to do this, we can just do it at home? So that's one of the main theories we've been given with our information.

Alexandra de Blas:Is it going to be more difficult baiting foxes in Tasmania than it is on the mainland?

Peter Mooney:Well maybe 'difficult' is not the word. It'll certainly be very different, because in Tasmania we still have our native carnivores living very happily in the environment. The animals such as Tasmanian Devils and Eastern Quolls, which were on the mainland but are now extinct, are still here in Tasmania. So we've got to be very smart and think carefully about how we do bait for foxes. For example we're trialling programs in Victoria at present to see if foxes will jump a good distance from a standing still position onto a platform to take bait, because we believe that these are the sort of issues we're going to have to think about for baiting programs in Tasmania, simply because the Devils will be able to dig quite deeply into any bait stations that are buried.

Alexandra de Blas:Is it possible to eradicate foxes altogether?

Peter Mooney:With the very low population it is, because they're in their first season if there here at the moment, breeding. So the first season is always one of the worst seasons for most animals and this is our golden opportunity, and probably our only opportunity over the next year to work on them and be successful, and we've just got to stick to it and be committed. And it is good to have a State government that's very, very co-operative, and we've expended many, many thousands of dollars on this program so far, but we're just not going to stop because it's too important an issue for Tasmania.

Alexandra de Blas:Peter Mooney, leader of the Fox Task Force with the Parks and Wildlife Service in Tasmania.